Quarter of a million temporary employees

256,000 persons in Norway were employed on a temporary basis in the second quarter of 1996. This corresponds to 13 per cent of all employees, figures from Statistics Norway's Labour Force Survey shows.

Of the 256,000 temporary employees, 33 per cent were substitutes, while 27 percent classified themselves as additional manpower. Twenty-three per cent stated that they were employed under a temporary contract or for a specific project. The remaining 17 per cent were apprentices, interns, participants in job creation programmes, etc.

The scope of temporary hiring in Norway is about at the same level as in Sweden and Denmark, but is three per cent under Finland. In EU countries the average in 1995 was 11.4 per cent.

74,000 man-years in overtime

Of all full-time employees, 27 per cent worked overtime in the second quarter of 1996. This corresponds to about 74,000 man-years, or six per cent of all man-years worked by full-time employees. Thirteen thousand of the man-years were later taken out as time off.

Overtime means hours worked beyond the agreed working hours for full-time employees, carried out in the course of a specified week. Fifty-six per cent of the overtime was compensated with pay, 19 per cent with time off, while 25 per cent was categorized as uncompensated.

Over 300,000 work shifts or rotas

A total of 312,000 employees worked shifts or rotas in the second quarter of 1996, corresponding to 16 per cent of all employees. Shift and rota work is more widespread among women than men.

Eighteen per cent of the women employees and 14 per cent of the male employees worked shifts or rotas in the second quarter of 1996. Working schedules such as these are most common among employees under 30 years of age (22 per cent). Shift and rota work is more common among those who work part-time than among all employees (both men and women). Twenty-two per cent of all part-time employees worked shifts or rotas, compared to 14 per cent of the full-time employees.

New Statistics

Labour Force Survey, 2nd quarter 1996.
Beginning in 1996 the sequence of questions contained in the Labour Force Survey was expanded and will be repeated annually from now on. More information: Tor Petter Bų, tel. +47 21 09 47 87, e-mail: tpb@ssb.no or Inger Håland, tel. +47 21 09 47 80, e-mail: iha@ssb.no.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 24, 1997